Tangled – Disney’s back!

When it started production 8 years ago it was called Rapunzel and seemed like Disney were no longer ashamed of their fairy story roots. They had my favourite animator of all time (Glen Keane) in the director’s chair and although it was CG, they really seemed to be trying to achieve something different with it.

Fast forward to a few days ago, and I was a nervous wreck of anticipation (ok, that’s an exaggeration, but I did go through at least one finger nail). They’d changed the name to ‘Tangled’, demoted Glen Keane and pushed back the release date about a billion times. It seemed like they weren’t sure about the appeal of the film, and that’s never a good sign with Disney (Treasure Planet anyone?).

But it’s actually a damned good film. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s beautiful, and it’s memorable. It sits with the greats as a classic Disney film. And I don’t mean that it’s a film made by Disney, ‘Tangled’ is actually a Disney film.

And I can’t give it higher praise than that.

Sure there were a couple of negatives; the music wasn’t great, certainly wouldn’t stand alone without the film like scores from Aladdin or Lion King; the ending could be considered slightly Beauty and the Beast; and the hair changes length from shot to shot with wild abandon…